Publication Information
Author: Terrance Dicks
Cover artist: Steve Kyte
Publishing date: 16th October 1980 Episode Information
TV serial: The Horns of Nimon
Writer: Anthony Read
Transmission Dates: 22nd December 1977 - 12th January 1978 (4 episodes) Fact and Findings
Former script editor Dicks adapts the work of former script editor Read.
First edition cover price - 85p
Classic chapter title: Time Bomb
Published by W. H. Allen, ISBN 0 426 20131 0. Reprinted by the same in 1982 (£1.25).
Later editions were numbered 31 in the Doctor Who library.
The laminated hardback was released simultaneously by W. H. Allen. The inside cover labelled it A Children's Book and it was priced £3.95, ISBN 0 491 02278 6.
The serial that was planned to follow The Horns of Nimon was Shada. Sadly due to industrial strikes at the BBC the serial was never completed and so The Leisure Hive became the next adventure on screen. However, in 1992 a video set was released of the footage that was completed with linking narration by Tom Baker.
Unlike the adaptations of the "Missing Stories" from the cancelled season of 1985, Shada was never adapted into a Target book (although script writer Douglas Adams did use a lot of the plot and characters in his novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Pan Books, 1988, £2.99)), but the video set did include the full script in a similar-sized paperback. Cover Data
Steve Kyte's cover was the only one produced for Doctor Who and the Horns of Nimon.
A larger version of Kyte's artwork appears in David J. Howe's book Timeframe (Virgin Publishing Ltd, 1993). Reviews
"Terrance Dicks has the uncanny knack of turning the most mediocre of TV stories into an entertaining, if undemanding little book. A recent example of this is The Power of Kroll, which positively sparkled on the printed page. Horns' sparkle is somewhat duller, but it is a much more vigorous and inoffensive tale than it was on TV."
- Paul Mount, 'The Doctor Who Review' (number 7), 1980UK Editions
The Target editions were published as follows:
1980, 16th October (first edition, W. H. Allen, Kyte cover, red curve logo, blue spinecolour Target, ISBN 0 426 20131 0, 85p)*
1982 (W. H. Allen, Kyte cover, red curve logo, blue spinecolour Target, ISBN 0 426 20131 0, £1.25)*
1984 (W. H. Allen, Kyte cover, red curve logo, blue spinecolour Target, ISBN 0 426 20131 0, £1.35)
1987 (W. H. Allen, ISBN 0 426 20131 0, £1.95)
* copy in site owner's personal collectionMiscellaneous
Author
Terrence Dicks
Cover
Steve Kyte's first cover for the series was the only one produced for Doctor Who and the Horns of Nimon. A larger version of Kyte's artwork appears in David J. Howe's book Timeframe (Virgin Publishing Ltd, 1993).
Cover artist: Steve Kyte
1980 Target edition
Steve Kyte graduated from art school in 1979 and set himself up as a freelance artist straight away (rather than joining a company or studio). The W. H. Allen/Doctor Who work was some of the first work he did. The artist has also worked on the 2000 AD comic, painted covers for the Channel 5 video company releases of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds series, and done Manga-style illustrations for books, videos and magazines.